"A Nightmare to Remember" by Ryley Breen AKA Shadow Master

email: rybreen@theberries.ns.ca

NYU Campus, 9:30 Am.

Well so much for the Professors being much help to me! Elisa thought in an annoyed tone of mind.

She had been at the NYU campus for about half an hour already talking to the administrator as well as the professors that she had been told were Mike Havender's. What information she had managed to get out of them hadn't been very much as far as being useful and most of it she already knew. Mike Havender had been a perfectly ordinary student with average grades for a third year student and had his share of friends. He had not shown any negative behavior until a week ago and had been stonewalling anyone who asked him about it, well any adult anyway. Now she was on her way to talk with a few of his supposed friends in the hopes that she would able to get more information out of them then the teachers. There was the possibility that this kids would get all rebellious towards her and hate authority to the point where she would have to leave to get away from them. She hoped that wasn't the case though because at the rate that she and Matt were going this case might never be solved.

Entering one of the dormitories she began walking down the hallways looking for the room number of the first student on her list. All about her were students of various ages hanging out and talking to one another or reading over pages of notes from a recent class. She smiled as she remembered her own time in this place of higher learning and wondered if the sort of activities she enjoyed as a teenager were still being done. Looking at the odd student as she passed by she noticed that a few of them seemed to be a bit tired and for a moment she thought that the killer had started his stalking of new victims with them. She dismissed it as she recalled the multitude of all nighters that she had been forced to endure back when she roamed these halls. Taking into account that it was the right time of year for mid-terms and papers it wasn't all that unusual to lose some sleep here and there. She brought her attention back to the task at hand as she finally reached the door marked S29 which according to the list in her hand was assigned to one of Mike Havender's friends.

As she knocked on the door and waited for a response she wondered

Do they know that their friend is dead?

It was a few moments before the door opened but when it did she found herself looking at a fairly tall teen who was obviously a jock by the muscles. He was about four or five inches taller than her with blonde hair and blue eyes and apparently she had just woken him up judging by the state of his clothes. For a moment he seemed to be stuck in the haze that everyone is in when they first wake up but eventually consciousness creeped in and he looked directly at her.

"Yeah, what is it?" the teen asked with some sleep still evident in his voice.

"Mr. Harrison? Detective Elisa Maza, 23rd prescient, I was wondering if you could answer a few questions about your friend Mike Havender?" she asked and was surprised by the reaction he gave her.

It seemed that the minute that she had connected Mike to the police he became significantly uneasy, almost like he expected to drop dead right then and there. Not exactly the kind of response she had expected but it did indicate that Harrison might know something about Mike and his predicament. Unfortunately moments after his expression was placed on his face it disappeared behind the perfect Poker face which despite her skill she was unable to see past.

"What's happened?" Mr. Harrison asked with guarded interest.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this Mr. Harrison but I am afraid Mike is dead." , Elisa replied as she tried to see past the mask on his face, "He died early this morning and I was hoping you might be able to lend a hand."

"What do you want to know?" Harrison asked without giving up so much as an inch of what he really thought.

"Well, did Mike have any enemies on campus? Bullies that might have wanted to hurt him?" she asked as she internally hoped that something would pop up.

"Naw, Mike was just one of the guys and pretty decent if you were in a jam." , Harrison replied nonchalantly as wiped some of the sleep out of his eyes, "I can't think of anyone pissed enough at him to want to do more than talk trash about him."

"Were you aware that he was taking massive doses of stimulants for the past week?" she asked, trying a different avenue of questioning.

"I knew he was taking the odd pill to stay awake, it's mid term season ya know." , Harrison replied as if this were nothing new to him, "Not surprised that it might have mounted up lately, he was getting heat from his parents about his grades and he was pretty obsessed with it."

"So hot that he would buy over fifty bucks of the most potent stimulants money can buy" , asked Elisa with an eyebrow raised, "and not all of it legal?"

"Look, it's tough getting by here both academically and socially." , Harrison replied with a bit of an edge to his voice, "Some people can't handle it but can't ditch either so they just put up with it. I'd like to think that I knew Mike pretty well but if something bad happened to him like murder then maybe I don't know him at all."

"So basically you can think of no reason why someone would want to kill Mike Havender." Elisa declared as she tried once more to see past the stony face before her.

"Right" replied Harrison said with a look that told her that whether she liked it or not their Q&A session was over.

"Well thank you for your time Mr. Harrison." , Elisa said politely though inside she was frustrated at the lack of info she was getting, "If you think of anything else you can get in touch with me at the 23rd police prescient."

"Yeah, sure." Harrison said reflexively as he closed the door in front of her.

Checking the list of people who reportedly had been frequently seen with Mike Havender he decided to give one of the jocks on the basketball team a try. Though she was by no means stereotypical when it came to athletes she was pretty sure that they wouldn't be able to hide anything from her like Harrison had. Turning left and heading towards the main gym where she suspected she would find a few of the die hard ball players shooting hoops between classes. With luck she could put a bit of a squeeze on one or more of them and get a little more than 'he was just an average guy'. Along the way she saw a few more people that looked like they had spent a little too much time hitting the books and tried to remember if it was like this for her when she was here. Nothing came to mind but she decided to file the fact away for later and hope that it meant something.

As she proceeded along she got a funny feeling along the back of her spine, the kind cops felt when they worry they might get a bullet there. Turning casually around she scanned the roving mass of students in an attempt to see where that feeling was coming from. She didn't think it was some punk with a gun looking for her but her cop sense did indeed give her the impression that someone was following her. Giving the crowd another look she could see no one who looked like they didn't belong or didn't have a justifiable reason for being there. Nevertheless as she continued towards the gym the feeling would not leave her, it persisted like the itch from a mosquito bite. In an attempt to draw her quarry out she sped up a little and tried to duck out of sight for a moment to see if she could catch her shadow attempting to pick up the pace. After three tries though it was obvious that either her pursuer was a lot better than she thought or it was just some of Matt's rampant paranoia rubbing off on her.

Just then she spots a sign just outside one of the larger classrooms with the word 'dreams' on it. Interested she walks toward it seeing that it was a seminar on people's dreams and in particular nightmares with a Doctor Harvey Johnson being the primary speaker. For a moment she feels the impulse to enter, to perhaps ask this Doc a few questions about her own little nightmare. At first she disregards it, after all it was just a little nightmare and hardly worth talking to a professional shrink about it all. Still, as she thinks back to the dream she had of her night in the park and the three girls playing jump rope she decides it couldn't hurt. After all, from what she had seen up until now she wasn't going to get a whole lot of information out of anyone about Mike Havender.

No sense making this trip a total loss. she thought to herself and with a shrug she opened the door.

Once inside she was pleased to see that the Doctor in question was still there and that the last few students were trickling out. That meant they would have a little privacy here and she wouldn't have to worry about hearing Matt taunt her about her dream. Looking at the object of her interest she could see that unlike most shrinks who looked detached from their listeners this doc actually seemed to care. He looked to be in his mid to late forties, an African American, a bit of a pot belly and a casual type of movement that seemed to indicate that he was honest. It took him a moment but eventually he noticed her and smiled in welcome causing her to take an immediate liking to the man.

"Hello, is there something I can do for you?" Dr. Johnson asked as he finished putting the last few stacks of paper into his briefcase.

"Kinda, I was just walking through the halls when I saw that you were giving a seminar on nightmares so I thought I'd ask you about the one I had last night." Elisa replied as she shook his offered hand.

"Well I am in something of a hurry but how about you tell me about your dream on the way to my car Miss...?" Johnson asked as he purposely left his sentence unfinished.

"Maza, Elisa Maza." Elisa replied as she walked side by side him as they left the classroom.

"Pardon me for saying so Ms. Maza but you don't look like a student." , Johnson asked as they rounded a corner, "Might I ask what brought you to NYU?"

"No problem. I'm a detective with the 23rd and I was here asking some of the students and faculty about a student who went here." , she said briefly as she tried to keep the flow of facts to a minimum, "Maybe you knew him, his name was Mike Havender."

She knew the moment that she finished stating the victim's name that the Doc knew him and perhaps he had seen his death coming to a certain degree. Silently she rejoiced that she had suddenly managed to stumble on a potential source but the problem now would be to get him to spill what he knew. If he proved to be as big of a brick wall as Harrison had been all would be for naught and she would be right back where she started. The problem was that due to the fact that Doc knew more about the problem than she did made questioning him about it all the more difficult. If she had only an inkling of what he knew she might be able to maneuver him into a corner and then pump him for as much info as possible.

Well, no one said that the life of a detective was going to be easy. she thought ruefully to herself as she watched the Doc for signs of evasiveness.

"Yeah I knew him. He occasionally dropped in on a few of my classes to ask about a few things." , Doc replied with a guarded expression that made it seem as though he was planning his answers, "Why? What's happened to him?"

Elisa didn't know for sure but it was obvious he had asked the last two questions purely for show. That either meant that he had a dislike for cops or he was trying to convince her that he didn't know anything and further questioning would be useless. Unfortunately he didn't take into account that she could see this and wasn't going to be put off until she got some answers.

"Well I'm afraid that he's dead." , she replied and saw that as expected that Doc already knew, "He was killed yesterday morning around two and rather grotesquely at that. Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to kill him?"

"No, Mike wasn't one for making enemies and those that you could call that never went beyond the usual bullying." Doc replied with a look that said he was feeling her out just as much as she was feeling him out.

"You ever see him talking to any unsavory people outside of class?" Elisa asked in the hopes that one of her questions would hit paydirt.

"No but then again I don't stick my nose into their business." , replied Doc as he tried to look casual, "It's my belief that if the kids want to talk to me they'll come to my office to do it. Until they do that there is nothing that I can do to help them."

Frustration was beginning to creep into Elisa's mood as she confronted yet another person who might be able to help her close this case and get the same stonewalling treatment. She knew that there was the possibility that both Harrison and Doc had a good reason for keeping their mouths shut but she just wished they would trust her enough to find a way to tell her the truth. Unfortunately from the way they were acting they didn't seem to trust cops with the information that they had. That usually meant that they had something to do with the crime itself or had skeletons of their own to deal with. Either way it meant that as far as answers went she was going to get absolutely zilch unless they had no other choice but to tell her.

"Well I guess that's it Dr. Johnson. Thanks for your time!" she declared as she failed to keep the frustration out of her voice.

Turning away she resumed her route to the Main gym in the hopes that she could still catch at least one of Havender's basketball buddy. She was about twenty feet away when she heard the Doctor's footsteps stop and in the hopes that Doc had changed his mind she turned to face him.

"What was your dream about Detective Maza?" Dr. Johnson asked with a look that said she knew something he wanted to know now.

For a moment she was stunned by the unforeseen question but then replied "It was of an old memory but it changed halfway through into something unusual. Three girls playing jump rope and singing a weird rhyme."

That seemed to hit a significant cord with the Doc as he seemed to look at her in a new light but the emotion she could see in his eyes was elusive in it's definition. She tried to place it but as quickly as it was there it was gone and she doubted she would see it again any time soon.

"Take my advice Detective" , Dr. Johnson said as he turned and began to walk away, "Follow Mike Havender's lead and you may live to learn truth."

**********************************************************

NYU Courtyard, 10:30 a.m.

I hope nothing happened to her. thought Matt as he waited around the university courtyard waiting for Elisa to show herself.

He knew it was probably just his usual suspicion working overtime again but he just couldn't shake the feeling that things were going to get pretty unusual in the days that followed. After all everything about this case seemed strange, from the murder weapon to the victim. Nothing seemed to fit or match any profile after all usually any sicko who could decapitate someone and boil the head on the stove aren't all that concerned with secrecy. The killer shouldn't be this difficult to spot but so far he had yet to find a scrap of evidence that might give them a direction to go. Chances are Elisa wasn't having much better luck and they would have to go back to the Captain empty handed once more which wasn't going to do the NYPD's PR any good. After all the public at large is going to want results with a murder like this and when they get zip it was going to make cops in general look incompetent. Then at the back of his mind he was still trying to figure out what case he had heard about back at the Bureau seemed so like this one.

"Hey Matt!!" yelled a voice from behind him and he saw Elisa trotting up behind him.

Getting up from his seat by the fountain he replied "Hey Elisa! So, did you turn anything up or was the cupboard bare?"

Joining him in a light walk towards her car Elisa replied "Afraid not, I think there are some people that know what is going on but they won't talk about it."

"Did you try pressing them for answers?" he asked while hoping that the answer was no.

"I did but they basically told me to back off or that the Q&A session was over." , Elisa replied with a sigh as she began to scan the parking lot for her car, "I just don't get it Matt, we have been asking all the right people but we're getting nada! You'd think that the killer was invisible or that he was picking his victims at random!"

"Maybe he is. After all some psychoes don't kill for any real reason other than pure pleasure." , Matt stated as they began to walk towards Elisa's car, "Unfortunately that's going to make our job all the harder since killers like this don't really discriminate."

"Great! The one person who won't judge a person by skin color or system

of beliefs and he's a depraved murderer!" Elisa muttered under her breath

as she took her key chain out of her pocket.

Just then the radio inside the car squawked to life

"Fairlaine 45, Fairlane 45, come in please." Spoke the dispatcher over

the white noise.

Reaching in and grabbing the microphone Elisa replied "This is Fairlane

45, over."

"The Captain wants you over to 23rd and Lexington right away." The dispatcher replied with a bit of uneasiness in her voice.

Looking at each other both Elisa and Matt knew that their killer had struck again so without a word between them they jumped into the fairlane and screeched out of the parking lot.

"Roger dispatch! Fairlane 45 en route!" Elisa said into the mike before almost slamming it back into it's slot.

"Looks like our boy just couldn't wait for nightfall." Matt said in a slightly humorous tone but whose expression was all business.

"Yeah well next time he does kill at night he's going to find out that he's not the only creature of the night out there!" Elisa declared as she began to show off her handling skills by maneuvering up the street between cars.

Remembering just at that moment that the siren and lights were not activated he quickly slapped the button for the police siren and carefully placed the red light on the roof of the car. Personally his stomach was churning at what they might find upon arriving at the scene of the crime, mostly since the killer had such a sick artistic streak.

What was it going to be this time? A collage of body parts? Perhaps a surprise viewing of the human skeletal system? Nah, more likely he'll go for a real crowd pleaser like some home made street pizza with extra gore. It was almost sick that he was actually placing bets on how the victim will have died this time but at the same time it was interesting.

After all what happened to Mike Havender wasn't a normal slashing by his standards, killers don't usually paint the walls red and cook their victim's head. Add that to the fact that he was able to leave the crime scene with not a single person seeing anything at all meant that he was either very good or very strange.

"Woah!" Matt yelled as Elisa took a turn a little too fast, pushing him against the door of the car.

"Sorry but I want to get there before the news hounds do!" Elisa said as she continued to weave in and out of the lanes of traffic between cars.

"Well unless their vans can go several times the speed of sound I think we'll beat them there by a few minutes at the rate your going!" Matt replied as he got ahold of the dashboard when Elisa made another sharp turn.

They made it to the crime scene in under fifteen minutes which is pretty impressive when you take into account New York traffic. As expected there were several officers waiting outside the house where the victim lived, each of them dealing with crowd control even though only a few were needed. Matt guessed that they had heard about the Havender murder and wanted to do anything other than go inside and see the body. That made his stomach a little queasy since it was possible that they had seen the body and gave the impression that this time it was worse. He and Elisa gave each other a look of dismay and stepped out of the car while silently praying for a stronger constitution than the other officers.

They were allowed through the police barricades and as they approached the front doors he could just make out the 'Nightwatch' news van pulling up and Travis Marshall stepping out. He let out a groan knowing full well that it was only a matter of time before that particular reporter got the goods on this case. The Captain was going to have their heads after this for sure! Hurrying in after his partner they learned that the victim was upstairs on the bed and that it was a she this time instead of a he. That little fact didn't really change the Killer M.O all that much but rather added to the idea that the murderer didn't care about his victim's background. As he continued to walk up the stairs to the bedroom he noticed several more members of either the NYPD or the coroner's office looking a little green around the gills. A few were even making use of the victim's bathroom to empty their stomach.

Definitly not a good sign if they can't even sprint outside to do it.

Matt thought as he approached the doorway to the bedroom behind Elisa.

It only took Elisa's decidedly horrified gasp and apparent attempt to keep her lunch in to tell him that it was worse than the Havender case. Entering the room he saw that this was definitly a notch up on the gross-o-meter and he had to fight to keep his composure. There lying on the bed was a body, if you could call it that now, that looked to be little more than skin and bones. Beneath the body though the bed was literally soaked in bodily fluids from blood all the way to fat juices. The skin looked like it had been literally freeze dried to the girls skin to the point that it looked like it would rip at any time. Trying to look away he instead focused on the officer who seemed to be in charge of things. The man was standing in the corner looking visibley shaken by what he had seen and Matt couldn't blame him in the least.

Walking over Matt asked "So officer, what's the 411 on this?"

It took the man a few moments to respond but eventually he spoke.

"The victim's name is Julie Richardson, apparantly a gymnist at NYU." , replied the officer in a shakey voice, "The victim was found by her friend Nancy when Ms. Richardson didn't show up for her 8:15 class. A-after Nancy pulled herself together she called the police and I responded to the call."

"You see anything suspicious when you arrived on the scene?" Elisa asked as she tried to overcome the sick feeling in her stomach.

"No Detective Maza, everything seemed pretty normal until you got up here to the bedroom." , replied the police officer with a broken voice, "I checked all the windows and doors but none of them seem to have been jimmied open or broken."

Seeing that the man wasn't going to keep it together much longer Bluestone said "Thanks officer, if you think of anything else please get in touch with us."

He merely nodded blankly as Bluestone and Maza walked away and Matt could tell he was really considering finding another line of work. Going over to the coroner who was still examining the body he hoped that they would be able to get something constructive out of him. After all this had to be able to give them some clue as to the killer's identity, killers can't do this to a body without some specific equipment. Havender was a gruesome but simple slash job but this was...was completely different and definitly unique.

"So what have you got for us this time?" Elisa asked as the medical examiner stood up and turned to her.

"Well Detective I'm afraid that I am at something of a loss to explain this." , the aged examiner replied, "The body seems to have been cooked to the point where the bodily fluids simply boiled out of her but there are no holes in the skin. If any incendary device was used it would have left scorch marks somewhere, it's almost as if she were thrown in a mircowave set on high."

"A Microwave?" Matt asked almost incredulously despite that the description seemed accurate enough.

"I know it sounds crazy detective but it's all I can come up with at the moment" , replied the examiner as he threw up his hands in frustration, "To tell you the truth I think something very strange is going on here."

You don't know the half of it! thought Matt as he thanked the examiner and shook the old man's hand.

Once outside Elisa turned to him and asked "So what do you think so far?"

"Well one thing is for sure, our killer isn't one of your garden variety perps." , Matt replied as they made their way to the fairlane, "I might have been able to believe that of the Havender case but after seeing this, not a chance!"

"So we're dealing with something supernatural in nature huh?" , Elisa rhetorically asked as she took the keys to her car out of her pocket, "I'll do a Q&A session with Owen tonight when I visit the guys. Maybe he'll be able to shed some light on this case because we sure haven't."

23rd Precient House, Captain Chavez's Office, 11:30 a.m

"So basically Captain we're dealing with one incredibly sick but slick perp here." , Elisa stated as she finished her laying out of the facts, "No telltale clues left behind and no apparent motive aside from the killing itself."

"No connection between the victims at all?" Chanvez asked a bit hopefully.

"None other than the fact that they were well liked with no apparent enemies beyond the average schoolyard bully." Matt replied with a sigh of frustration all his own.

"Any ideas on where to go from here?" asked the Captain.

"Only to peruse old case files and hope that we find a match in there before this sicko kills again." Elisa stated with a less than optimistic look on her face.

"Which will take time we don't have." , Matt said filling in the last part of the sentence, "Still, I have a few friends in the FBI who are doing some digging for me, hopefully the killer didn't choose the Big Apple for his debut."

"Well then you had better get to it because the Mayor just called me before you came in and he knows about the Havender murder." Chavez said with a groan telling the two detectives that the discussion was not fun at all.

"Did he sound pissed?" Matt asked hesitantly.

"Very." Chavez said with an eyebrow raised in significance.

"Well we're on it." Elisa declared and with that got up to leave the Captain's office to do her job.

Just as she was about to leave she spotted a newspaper clipping sticking out from inside a folder. She couldn't see the entire headline except for the words murder and the beginnings of a town name with the word 'Spring' in it. What had the Captain been looking at and why did this clipping give her the idea that Chavez knew more about this killer than she was letting on?

"Problem Detective?" asked Chavez in a tone that basically said subtley mind your own business or else.'.

Not wanting to raise the Captain's ire any more than it already was she quickly walked out of the office with Matt following up close behind her. Yet despite the Captain's warning and the trust that had built up between them she was reluctant to dismiss what she had seen in the office. True Chavez was a police captain and that entitled her to have a few case folders it seemed a little too coincidental that she had one for mutltiple murders. Filing away the fact for later she decided she might as well get to work and see if she could come up with anything to break the case open a crack or so.

"Well I'm off to see if I can get into contact with Hacker again and coax something out of him." , Matt stated as they walked through the squad room, "If that turns into a dead end the best I can hope for is to hang around the dorms and hope that something happens."

"Yeah well I bet that you'll be having more fun than I will." , Elisa said sarcastically as she imagined the numerous filing cabinets she would have to look through, "So you'll mett me at the Eryie building tonight to see what the guys and Xanatos have managed to put together on their ends?"

"It's a date." Matt replied and with that turned down towards the

precient entrance to make his way to the NYU campus.

It's going to be a loooonnngggg day! Elisa thought to herself with a groan as she headed down to the archive room.

Central Park, 12:30 p.m

"You're a persistent man Matthew." Came the familiar voice of Agent Hacker of the FBI and member of the Illuminati.

"Well that's one of the qualities that got me a membership isn't it?" , Matt asked rhetorically as he turned to see Hacker's approaching figure, "So have you been able to get anything for me on this case or has this just been another splendid waste of time for the both of us?"

"Sorry Matthew but the moment I tried to get anything for you from our little club I was cut off and politely told by the higher ups to mind my own business." , Hacker responded with what might have been regret in his eyes, "Heck, I shouldn't even be here now but I felt you should at least have some warning about how big this is."

Big doesn't even begin to explain things! Matt thought to himself as he tried to put the pieces together in his head.

If the all powerful Illuminati Society was worried about this to the point that they classified all information and effectively put a lid on those who had access to it then the warning bells in his head were definitley on the verge of overheating. It was exciting and at the same time it was frightening because if this was big enough to cause the Society to more than bat an eye than he was way out of his league. Still this made the need for information even more insistant since both he and Elisa would be better prepared for what they had to face with it than without. Just then he remembered the plaid wearing shape that he had spotted coming out of the electronics store and decided that this was as good a time as any.

"Did you have anyone following me today?" he asked in a neutral voice as he watched his ex-partner's reaction.

"No. Why? Was there someone following you?" Hacker asked in a way that made it seem as though he wanted the answer to that question as well.

"Yeah, I was coming out of an electronics store on 33rd when I got the feeling that I was being watched." , Matt replied as he tried to recall what he had seen, "When I looked all I saw was a plaid shirt and blonde hair. When I tried to run after the person they disappeared and I just assumed that you had assigned him to keep an eye on me."

"Well I don't know how to tell you this Matthew but I didn't have anyone follow you and I'm pretty sure no one in the club saw this coming either." Stated Agent Hacker as a small frown came across his face.

"Which means that there are people out there besides us who know something or want to know something." , Matt muttered as he pondered this new information, "Question is do they know anything about the killer or are they just as in the dark as the rest of us?"

"No way of knowing without catching this unwelcome shadow and even then there is no gaurantee that this person will talk." Hacker commented as he mirrored Matt's train of thought.

"Maybe but at the moment this is the only lead I have as to who this killer is." , Matt said as he got up from the park bench, "Well sorry to drag you back here for the second day in a row."

"No problem. I find that meeting with you is rarely a waste of time." , Hacker said as he got off the bench himself, "In a way you're almost like Spooky in what you manage to sniff out."

"Don't let him hear you say that or you might make him mad." Matt said humerously with a smile.

"Yea well I'll leave you to straighten things out." , Hacker replied with a laugh of his own, "Oh and Matt? If you learn anything about this killer be sure to send the info my way okay?"

"Sure thing Hacker!" Matt replied and with no further words needed to be said the two trenchcoat wearing Illuminati members strolled away from each other.

Little did they know that their little meeting had been monitored by a seemingly indiscrimate jogger gal who had bent down nearbye to tie her shoelace. She had been listening almost since the conversation had begun and had been more than interested with the mentioning of a club with access to unusual facts. It was disappointing however when her efforts went down the tubes since no information about the killer had been revealed. Not that she and her friends didn't know some big things aboutthe scar faced creep but it still didn't mean that they couldn't use more. Leaving well enough alone she decided it was time to report in to the 'dults and let them know what had happened. So far two out the three of them had been either seen or contacted aimlessly and she doubted it would take long for the two NYPD detectives to track down the third.

Getting up from her kneeling position she turned towards the north entrance to the park and jogged casually away.

23rd Precient, Archive Room, 1:30 p.m

Next time I'm the one that is going to see the informant and Matt is going to be the one to look through the archives! Elisa thought to herself with a frown.

She had been in here an hour and was just about bored to tears with all the reports. She had already looked through the reports for the past six months and nothing even remotely matched the current murderer's profile. That either meant that he was not a local boy or had been sitting on his hands for the past six months before starting his murdering spree again. Whichever it was she was beginning to think that she wouldn't find very much here that would b of help. She could look through all these files from now until the year 2000 and she still probably would not find anything. That meant that she would have to do some careful asking around at other precients to see if they had ever had anything like this. Not that they were likely to say to but it was pretty common among the law enforcement community that stepping outside your jurisdiction was frowned upon. Still there was a chance that this creep had gone on a killing spree elsewhere and just moved a couple of blocks before starting over. After all Chavez seemed pretty determined to keep a lid on this which seemed to indicate some pressure from the higher ups.

"Unfortunatly that leads to the question of whether or not the Captain was hiding anything important." Elisa muttered to herself as she stood up and stretched out.

Just then her cel-phone rang and nearly caused her to jump five feet in the air with shock before she eventually got a hold of herself. Taking it out of her pocket she looked at the display and saw that it was Xantos that was calling her which made her wonder if she should cheer or frown. Sighing with reluctance she appropriate button and placed the phone beside her head hoping for good news.

"Maza! What's up Xanatos?" Elisa asked as she looked obliviously at the file folders in front of her.

"Good to hear from you too Detective." , Xanatos replied dryly, "I just thought you might want to know that whatever you have on your hands is pretty big, my club is keeping a tight lid on things. Fortunatly a little pondering on the part of Owen and myself turned up a possible lead for you. Meet us at the burnt out youth center down in the Bronx in an hour and I may have more to tell you about your mysterious killer."

"I'll pick up Matt and we'll meet you there." Elisa declared with a bit more exuberance than she had meant to.

Ending the call she shoved the phone in her pocket and quickly walked out of the archive room towards the front entrance to the precient. It wasn't that she treated Xanatos' info as a god send or anything but given that she wasn't doing any good on her end made this a welcome change of pace. Perhaps now they might be able to at least put a name to the killer and where there is a name there is a police record. Completely oblivious to those around her she weaved in and out of the squad room crowd heading past her desk. Once outside she was about to reach into her pocket to get her keys when a haunting song filled the air and chilled her bones.

"One...two... Freddy's coming for you...three...four...better lock your door" came the familier trio of voices from the direction of the parking lot.

"What the...!?" Elisa exclaimed.

Puzzled she goes towards the parking lot, something in the back of her mind nagging her, as if some voice was telling her that something was terribly wrong. Entering the parking garage she is surprised to find it empty, after all it was mid-day and it should be reasonably full with cars belonging to the desk jockeys. This only heigtens her unease as she procedes at random towards the direction her car is in, trying to find the source of the singing even in an echo chamber like this.

"....5.....6....grab your crucifix....7.....8.... better stay up late...." Came the voices of the same three girls as Elisa turned the corner of the concrete barrier, fully expecting to come upon the kids.

The only things she see's are the dead and mutilated bodies of the murder victims. They lay there staring at her as if they were alive, looking with misery at her and yet at the same time with an urgency that wasn't intended for themselves. Elisa almost gagged at the sight backpedalling reflexively before stopping to try and make sense of her surroundings and her predicament. Just then the parking garage was filled with the screeching sound of metal on concrete, causing Elisa to whip around to try and find the source. Unfortunatly just as suddenly as the sound started it stopped, leaving the air quiet as if nothing had happened, making what was going on seem more eerie to her. Taking her firearm out of it's holster she began to carefully search the garage, checking every nook and cranny, with her gun ready should anything show itself.

".....9.....10.....never sleep again." Came the end of the rhyme as the voices of the three little girls seemed to fade into nothingness.

"Screeeeeeech!!!" came the sound once more, a chilling sound, of metal scraping against stone but this time it was coming from the opposite direction.

"Look! Whoever you are, come out now and lets finish this face to face!" Elisa yelled into the darkness as she tried to make out some sort of shape.

"Now what would be the fun in that Bitch!" came a deep throaty voice in return to her demand.

We'll see how much fund your having when I pump you fulla lead jackass!! she thought to herself as she continued to search the parking garage for her stalker.

Elisa could hear him breathing, hear the occasional small laugh as he thought amusing things about her but she could never manage to narrow down a point of origin. It was as if he was coming at her from everywhere and no where at the same time and given what she had just seen that wasn't entirely impossible. Looking around 360 degrees she finally decided to stop playing this jerk's came of hide and go seek and just get the hell out of here. Changing into a tactical retreat she began to make her way towards her Ford Fairlane and prayed that she would be able to make it there before this sicko caught on. Turning right and left, combing each direction before continuing, she swiftly made her way closer and closer towards her red Fairlane. Just then she heard a car come to life behind her and she was shocked by this because she recognised the sound of the engine. Whipping around she looked and confirmed what she had suspected by the sound of the car engine, the same sicko that had been taunting her had somehow hotwired her car!

"Heheheheh!! Let's take her for a test drive!" exclaimed the man in the dirty fedora as the fairlane screeched out of it's parking spot.

Elisa didn't need to be a genius to figure out what he planned to do with that and immediately started running, trying to put some distance between her and the maniac. She ran as hard as she could, all the while hearing his sadistic laughter echoing in her ears, as the roar of the car got closer and closer. Suddenly she got a crazy idea and almost dismissed it out of hand before deciding that it was the only way that she would avoid becoming roadkill. Waiting, just until the sound of the engine was appropriatly close, she then jumped into the air doing a back flip onto the hood of her own car. With a thud she almost whooped in victory but at the time was too concerned with just staying on the car and not falling off. Looking into the front seats of the car she got her first real look at the creep and was disgusted by what she saw.

Behind the heel of her car is a man dressed in a red and green stiped sweater that looks like it has been worn one too many times already. On the steering wheel is what looks like a home-made glove with metal fingers attached and razors attached to each finger tip. Finally she looks at the face of the driver and sees a man's face, burnt to the point where it looks like a melting wax figure rather than a face of flesh and blood. The thing that caused her blood to run cold though was not his gruesome appearance but rather the insane, sadistic look in his eyes. As if he would kill her in the most sick and depreaved way possible and enjoy every last moment right up until the moment she breathed her last breath.

"Hahahahahahaha!! Better buckle up!!" the man chuckled with sadistic glee and all of a sudden, as if from nowhere, a leather seatbelt sprang up and wrapped around Elisa's waist.

"Ahhhh!" Elisa exclaimed as she looked down to see the hellish buckle latch on to the other strip of leather and lock.

Two more seatbelts spring up, one pins down her legs while the other forces her head down to the point to where she is cheek-to-steel with the hood of her car. She struggles as best she can, trying to free at least her head from the straps so she might be able to see where this freak was taking her. Then again she might feel better not knowing where he was taking her considering what he probably had in mind. Suddenly she hears the sound of metal scraping against metal and sees as as the metal around the headlights and the front fender of her car begin to change.

Slowly but surely they began to take on a mor organic look to them, as if they ceased being cold hard steel and had become real living flesh. Then the roof of the car seemingly began to grow black hair until you could swear someone had put a toupee on top as a joke. The most tell-tale hint though was when the roar of the engine changed into the roar of some monster, growling viciously as they sped around the streets. Finally the most surprising change of all occurred as the man pulled up a bicycle pump from somewhere around his feet. Grinning like a madman he places the pump between his legs and begings ramming the handle up and down. Disgusted Elisa turned away but was then struck by another curious sensation, a sensation of being elevated higher and higher and when she opened her eyes she saw what the bicycle pump was really for.

Rising up over the sides of the car was a huge spiked tire and she was pretty sure that the same was the case with all the other tires. She groaned in disbelief as she saw what was happening to her car, for a moment gaining respite from her fear.

"Now this is what I call a monster truck!!" exclaimed the burnt man with glee as he turned another corner.

The only problem was that the street he turned onto was full of people, people who seemed unusually unaware of the terror that was barrelling down upon them. She iimmediately tried to scream at them to get out of the way but before she could do so a fourth leather strap clamped down over her mouth silencing her. Frantically she pulled and tugged at her bonds, hoping to get at least one arm free so she could remove the strap from her mouth so she could scream but she couldn't move a muscle. Suddenly there was a thump and the car lurched up and then down as if it had hit a pot hole and just as she was about to ask the question as to what happened a splash of blood covered her face.

"Well I think it's about time that we took in on home!!" , roared the man in the dirty fedora as he suddenly turned onto a different street and accelerated, "It's way past your bedtime bitch!!"

Frantically Elisa redoubles her efforts to free herself from the leather straps tieing her down but to no avail. Just then there is another thump and for a moment she thinks that the man has run over another victim but surprisingly there is no gush of blood flowing over her. Suddenly the strap holding her head down lets go and she can freely move her head about. Turning she looks to see a teenage girl kneeling carefully on the hood of the car cutting through the seatbelts with a large knife. Another strap is cut and she can finally get to her feet somewhat even though they are moving on a fairlane from hell.

"Hey! This was a private get together bitch!!" Yelled the burnt man in a rage.

"Sorry Freddy! You'll spoil your dinner with all these afternoon snacks!" said the blonde girl, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Furiously the burnt man punched his way through the windshield of the car with a gloved hand and tried to grab one of their legs.

"Quick! Jump!" yelled the young blonde girl and without a second thought she jumped.

Elisa looked back at what the result would be if she stayed and immediately followed suit, jumping for all she was worth off the monster truck that used to be her fairlane. Just as she thought that she was safe she felt a lancing pain in her right leg, like four knives cutting right through her jeans and into her flesh. With the pain in her leg the last thing she saw was what looked like a burnt out building at the end of the street.

23rd Precient House, Archive Room, 2:30p.m

"Ahhhhhhh!!" Elisa exclaimed as she sat up fast in her chair and almost tipped it over.

"Easy partner! It was just a bad dream!" , said Matt as he steadied his partner's chair, "I came down to see how you were doing and found you asleep."

For a moment Elisa seemed disoriented, as if she had thought she had been somewhere else but everntually replied "Yeah, I guess I nodded off while looking at the old case files."

"Find anything?" Matt asked as he sat on the edge of the desk.

"Nada, I checked every file for the past six months to look for any similar killings and came up empty" , Elisa replied as she passed him a few of the examples, "You'd think that a guy that was this much into creative deaths would have a few more works of art for us to look at!"

"Well don't feel too bad because my lead came up short also." , Matt grumbled as he remembered his unfruitful meeting with Hacker, "Apparently the society has put a tight lid on any info pertaining to this case and all possible perps and not even Hacker could get anything out for me."

"Well then that leaves Xanatos as our only line of info as to who might be behind all this." , Elisa stated as she pushed the chair back and prepared to stand up, "If he turns out to be a dead end then we'll be bone dry as far as possible leads go."

Elisa started to stand up when she felt a striking pain in her right leg that almost caused her to fall to the floor if Matt hadn't been there to hold her up. Not understanding how her leg got hurt she looked down to her leg and almost freaked by what she saw. There, just as it had been in the dream, were four bloody slash marks from the knee down to the ankle which were just far enough apart to look like they had been made by really sharp finger nails. She leaned on Matt as she tried to get as much weight off of the leg as possible and thus ease the pain a little bit.

"Hey! What happened to your leg!?" Matt asked as he eased her back into the chair as he bent down to take a closer look at her leg.

"I don't know! I mean, I've been here almost three hours an moved an inch!" she replied in confusion as she too tried to make sense of what was before her.

Then it hit her, the slashes in her dream and the ones that were now bleeding on in the exact same place. From those two facts a great many of the questions about the case were answered and despite the fact that they were followed by more questions she felt a small amout of excitement. Finally they had made some headway in this case and had a chance of catching the perp responsible for the two gruesome murders. Not wanting to waste any time sitting around here she grabbed the cloth belt of Matt's trenchcoat and wrapped it like a makeshift bandadge around the cuts. Matt protested the act but she didn't even bother answering as she started to make her way towards the door.

"Elisa where are you going!?" he exclaimed as he dumbfoundedly opened the door for her and helped her walk.

"I think I've just thought of an angle we hadn't considered but we have to get to the Eryie Building ASAP." She replied as she began to hop up the stairs one step at a time as they left the basement.

"What is it?" Matt asked, a little more curious than puzzled now.

"What would I say if I told you that the perp we're looking for is attacking these kids in their dreams and killing them without physically coming near them?" she asked as they neared the top of the stairs.

"I'd say that some of my paranoia is rubbing off on you." Matt replied sarcastically even though the little gears in his head were spinning in contemplation.

"You're partly right but this is the one time when that is a good thing." Elisa stated as they entered the main hallway and began to make their way to the front entrance.

"Well did this fabulous insight tell you who our perp was?" Matt asked as if he was still having a hard time believing what he was hearing coming from his usually skeptical partner.

"Only a name and a partial description but it's the best thing we've gotten so far today." Elisa stated as they continued down the hallway.

Hopefully we can get out of the precient before the Captain or anyone else spots us. , Elisa thought to herself as she hobbled along leaning on Matt's shoulder, We would have a heck of a time explaining how I got four slash marks looking through the archives downstairs.

She wasn't quite sure why she was so reluctant to speak with Captain Chavez or see her after this revelation but she had the strongest feeling that her friend was hiding something crucial from them. She couldn't put a finger on what but it was clear from the newspaper clippings in the Captain's office and her reaction to the prelimenary investigation that something had struck a cord. There was something about this crime that both frightened Maria Chavez and at the same time it was something she almost acted like it was expected. Eventually there would be a confrontation but before that happened Elisa wanted answers and there was only one man who could give them to her.

Eryie Building, David Xanatos' office, 3:00 p.m

Xanatos was in the middle of a meeting with the head of Personnel when Detective Maza burst in and given the look on her face she would not be content with simply waiting outside until the meeting was over. Without saying a word he motioned to the Personnel head that he was to leave immediately and would be summoned later to resume the meeting. Normally he would have made some snide comment to the detective to show his displeasure at her barging in here unannounced but given the most likely topic of discussion he didn't. Instead he decided to make a more co-operative statement in the hopes that they would be able to talk rather than yell.

"What can I do for you Detective?" Xanatos asked as he steepled his hands in front of him.

"Have you heard anything more about the case from your secret club?" Elisa asked as she continued to walk foreward with a slight limp.

"I'm afraid that I have faired no better than Agent Hacker did Detective." , Xanatos replied with a sigh that showed that he was disappointed as well, "My club has a lid on this tighter than anything I've seen during my time as a member. Apparently they are afraid of what this case implies or they see a way to profit by it that I won't commit myself to."

"Did you find anything about that case that I mentioned, the small town slasher murders?" Elisa asked as Matt entered the room and closed the door.

"Surpisingly Detective there are a veritable multitude of cases that fit that profile inside the F.B.I's archives. I have already begun to sift through the files myself but I believe it will take some time to find what you are looking for." replied Owen in his usual 'ice man' manner even though she had not been addressing him.

"Well I think I may have come across something that might narrow the field considerably." , Elisa declared as she sat down in front of the desk with some relief, "Check the files for a murderer named Freddy who has a fancy for using a razor tipped glove and may have worked in a town called Springwood."

For a moment Xanatos processed that information than looked to Owen to see his response and was shocked to see his major domo looking distinctly paler than he usually did. It was obvious that the Detective had hit the jackpot because Mr. Burnette definitly knew something. For a few minutes Owen simply stood there with eyes wide open and an unusual look on his face but eventually he seemed to riegn himself in. Straightening his glasses and fixing his tie he looked squarely at the Detective as if anything other than her did not exist at all.

"Detective, where did you gain this information?" Owen asked in a slightly shaken tone of voice.

"Directly from the horses mouth you could say." , Elisa replied as he eyes narrowed into an accusing stare, "I had been looking through old case files at the precient when I fell asleep. Unfortunatly this particular dreamland turned out to be more of a nightmare than a

fantasy. You know something about this Owen?"

"Perhaps." , replied the stoney blonde as he looked even more out of sorts, "One final question detective; was there anything else about this man's appearance that you can recall?"

Frowning Elisa replied "Yeah, his face was burned up pretty bad and he was wearing a red and green striped sweater."

Owen's face hit full pale status when the Detective finished her description and that was enough to cause Xanatos to feel a chill to go up his spine. Anything that caused a virtually immortal fey to be that scared was not something to be taken lightly. Still this silence that seemed to be filling up the room was doing them no good, if there was a danger in the city then they needed to know how to fight it.

"Owen would you care to fill us in?" Xanatos asked calmly as he waited for his major domo's response.

"I am afraid sir that I have precious little information to fill you in with." , Owen replied as he seemed to try and steel himself against what he was feeling, "Around fifteen years ago Queen Titania sensed an unusually dark energy in the town of Springwood, Ohio and sent me to investigate. She gave no real reason for this other than simple

curiousity so I was happy to oblige her."

"When I arrived in the town everything seemed normal except for the sense of evil that permeated the area. At the time I had simply thought that some dark mage had recently cast a spell that backfired on him but that was before I learned differently. Before the teenagers started to die."

"Die?" Elisa asked as she beat Xanatos to the proverbial punch.

"It was a rash of deaths at a local asylum, the doctors there labelled most of them as suicides but the patients there sweared that some monster was going to kill them in their dreams" , Owen replied as a distant look came over him, "At first I agreed with the doctors, after all it was an asylum and I had seen stranger things. That was before I actually decided to enter the dreams of one of the patients to see this 'bad man' for myself."

"Needless to say I believed the young teens from that moment onward. The visage of evil that was stalking them in their dreams was identical to the man you described Detective and the sleeper dubbed him Freddy. Unfortunatly by entering the dream I made myself known somehow to this creature and thus became his prey. I was cocky at the time and believed that I could defend myself adequetely against this murderer but when I tried to defeat him I found myself powerless."

"Powerless?" Xanatos asked in mild surprise at the rare occurance.

"I was as surprised as you Mr. Xanatos but I did not have much time to contemplate the situation as the evil man's eyes fell upon me." , Owen replied and an almost imperceptible shiver ran through him, "His eyes.....t-they held such evil... such sadistic lusts that the outside world seemed brighter than it ever had before. Thankfully when he lost his focus on his former prey the sleeper woke up and allowed both of us to escape."

"I didn't sleep at all since that encounter while I remained within the small town. Within a few days though the evil presence seemed to disappear, as if someone had succeeded in defeating it where I could not" , explained Owen as he continued his tale, "Unfortunatly when I learned of the method of his defeat I experienced significant doubt as to whether or not simply putting Freddy's soul to rest would do the trick. Still my job was done so I left the town and asked a person living on the outskirts of the town to monitor things for me. Her reports have been less than promising."

"What do you mean 'less than promising'?" Elisa asked as decidedly unhappy look appeared on her face.

"Roughly two years after that Freddy escaped and began his murder spree anew for about a week or two before he was once again defeated by the town's teenagers." , replied Owen as he began to develop a frown on his face, "This however didn't finish him either since three years later Freddy reappeared once more to resume his work. After the initial phone call from the woman whom I asked to monitor matters I never heard from her again."

"What happened to her?" Xanatos asked with intense interest.

"I don't know. When I tried to contact anyone in the town for information pertaining to her whereabouts I was unable to get a coherant answer." , replied Owen as his frown seemed to deepen, "The townsfolk who answered seemed mentally disturbed, not drastically but enough to cause them to fall into a low level state of paranoia and sleep deprivation. Since then I haven't dared go back to that town for fear of finding the entire population dead by less than kind methods."

"So how did he find his way here?" Xanatos asked as he began to ponder the ramifications of the trouble they were in.

It was not a pretty picture in the least, to think of a sadistic serial killer in a city with literally millions of victims available. Worse yet the killer struck when the person was sleeping and that was the one thing that no one human could go very long without whether they wanted it or not. Add that to the fact that this thing was apparently immortal and you had a very unpleasant situation that could only get worse. Immediatly he began to make plans for getting his wife and son out of the city as fast as possible and as far away as possible. He wanted them to be safe before he tried to confront this killer and the sooner they left the better. As for himself he had to admit it was awefully tempting to leave as well but that would be a cowards way out and he had an image to keep up.

"I have no idea Mr. Xanatos. It was my general hypothesis that Freddy was confined to Springwood due to the fact that the murders never went farther than the Springwood city limits." , Owen replied as he cleaned a smudge on his glasses, "I can only guess that he 'stowed away' by attaching himself to someone who was leaving the town."

"Is it possible that this person was unaware of this?" Maza asked with some concern.

"I would think that a person would have to be either insane or incredibly sadistic to bring him here knowingly Detective." Owen replied in a tone that made it appear that he believed her question to be rather stupid.

"We'll worry about the how later Detective, right now we have to worry about how we can stop him." stated Xanatos as he left his chair to join the other two in the center of the room.

"Not to mention how we can protect ourselves." Maza added with a stone face.

"Well for one thing we cannot hope to win by following the example of the previous victims and forcing ourselves to stay awake constantly." Xanatos declared as his stroked his beard.

"What do you have in mind sir?" Owen inquired.